A and E and Ambulance Services

David Nuttall Excerpts
Thursday 18th December 2014

(9 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Jeremy Hunt Portrait Mr Hunt
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The long-term solution is to provide more GPs and GP capacity, which is why we plan to train 5,000 more GPs over the course of the next Parliament, but that will take time, so we need to find shorter-term solutions. We are working with the Royal College of General Practitioners to establish what can be done in the short and medium term.

David Nuttall Portrait Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con)
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Does my right hon. Friend agree that hoax calls are one of the causes of the pressures on the ambulance service, and that those responsible should always be prosecuted and dealt with in the most severe manner possible?

Jeremy Hunt Portrait Mr Hunt
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It is totally unacceptable for people to create extra pressure on ambulance services when they should not be doing so. One of the encouraging aspects of the better care programme is the fact that we are starting to analyse the ambulance service, the local NHS and the social care system in order to establish where the highest volumes of ambulance calls are coming from and sort out the problem.